Flow characteristics of carbon fibre moulding compounds

Charge packs covering just 40% of the mould can be effectively used to process DFC, without detrimentally affecting void content, fibre distribution and mechanical properties. Tensile stiffness and strength values of 36 GPa and 320 MPa are reported for isotropic materials (100% charge coverage), which increase to 46 GPa and 408 MPa with flow induced alignment (50% charge coverage) at 50% fibre volume fraction.